Time Change Blues

Wed, Nov
21, 2007 - By Wayne Dustin

[From the diary of Wayne Dustin in the tradiation of "juggling working, family, training & racing" from the XCOttawa.com web site]

No, it's not what you think. I don't care if it gets dark early. My schedule dictates that I train in the morning. In the summer this is fine, there's plenty of daylight. In the winter, it's also fine, because I'm skiing, so who cares about daylight. But in the spring and fall when the days are getting short and the weather sucks, I don't really want to train in the dark. With the new extended daylight savings, the days with the darkest mornings have been extended. Last week it didn't get really light until after 7. At least some mornings there was a full moon.

Since I work full-time and have an 11 month old baby, early in the morning is the best available time I have for training. Basically from 9 am to dinner time is work, and from dinner until Kaitlin's 9 pm bedtime is baby time.

The only available times I have for training are before work, lunch time, 5-6pm, and after 9 pm. I don't like training at lunch because I have to change, train, shower and change again, and it ends up taking too long to get a decent workout. After work I either bike or run home (20 min bike, 35 min run, which can be extended up to an hour if I have time. After 9 pm I generally don't feeel like training, but sometimes I will go to the pool for a swim.